


Bernadetta von Varley's never been in love

by Gozufucker



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Character Study?, F/F, Fluff, More introspection than anything, Pining, Pre-Timeskip, Set sometime after their support chain, idk - Freeform, its what it is, more about bernie than leonie, somewhat pre-established
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 22:17:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20366005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gozufucker/pseuds/Gozufucker
Summary: But she's had a few crushes before.





	Bernadetta von Varley's never been in love

Stupid Bernie- why'd you go ahead and agree to this?! It was cold and dark and… Well, okay, she’d snuck out of her room more than a few times when it was dark, as Hubert could attest to with his rumors of her being a slasher killer on the loose, but this was a whole different level of sneaking around! She was pretty sure that breaking into the training grounds at this time would lead to something bad If the Knights found out! She could get sent back home or something! Or even worse, her fad would come here and lecture her!

Despite all that panic and anxiety bubbling inside of her like a volcano ready to erupt at any moment, she’d still, for some goddess forsaken reason, made her way over to the training grounds, hands slowly rubbing her own sides due to the slightly cold wind. It didn’t snow here, but the winter cold still reached her bones and rattled them about for her. The reason why she’d came was waiting for her, having already somehow cracked open the lock…

… Leonie. Bright and sunny Leonie, lifting a hand to wave as she pockets what appears to be a lockpick of some kind. Did she go and ask Ashe?! How’d she know how to do that?! Bernie felt a lump of anxiety at the very thought but kept quiet and just awkwardly lifted her own hand to greet the Golden Deer student that was waiting for her. “H-Hey, Leonie… How’d you, uh. N-Never mind! Let’s just g-go and train like you said. I, uh. I-“

She was at a loss for words already, but Leonie didn’t seem to mind. “Sure! Back when I was a kid, Jeralt taught me how to open some basic locks. I’ve been practicing with this one broken one back at home… Guess this one was about as complex as that. C’mon!” Leonie sets out to the training grounds, and Bernie has no option besides following. Gosh, she wishes she could be that confident… She’d never even think of breaking down locks.

That drive is what has her so curious about Leonie, maybe. She’s always so driven and powerful. Sure, she claims to walk in the footsteps of a great man, but the way Bernadetta sees it, Leonie’s already walked a path of her own that’s just as great, and it could become even greater with time. Compared to her, Bernadetta really was nothing. Just… Untalented and dumb. She could sew, and uh. That was about it. She wasn’t strong like Leonie, she wasn’t smart like she was, she didn’t know how to hold a conversation like Leonie did, she wasn’t as pretty…

… She just didn’t match up at all. Yet somehow, for some reason, this amazing girl kept spending time with her. Be it fixing up her torn clothes after some combat or training mishap, or just hanging out and talking about things. Leonie was one of the few people who she’d told about her dad, about how she’d gotten to Garreg Mach, about her uncle and how Alois reminded her of him, about her other worries, about the few joys she had, about the kinds of cake she ate.

She told Leonie about a lot of things, didn’t she? They exchange words even now. Casual chatter (or in Bernie’s case, casual stutter) as they get their lances and start to practice swings at either the air, some dolls, or on the occasion each other. All that blurs in her head into a sort of slurry that she waddles through, her mind on so many levels of detachment due to the absolute adoring she feels towards this other girl. Her feet get mixed up a few times and she almost falls, but Leonie’s always there to quickly support her and to make some fun of the situation.

She’d talked about personal matters too. About how she’d been discussed as a candidate for some arranged marriages. How her dad hated her because of how poor a choice she’d become. How she’d never really been in love. She’d never had the chance to even know how that feels. The longing for some so close yet so far away, nor the feeling of having your whole miserable life lighten up a little bit just by them existing. Leonie had apparently never been in love either, but she said that hadn’t mattered for her. She’d think about those things if she had to, and she didn’t, so.

Another thing that Bernadetta was so envious about. She’d been thinking about love a lot recently, perhaps because of that discussion. What did it mean to be in love? What did it mean to want something like that from a person? This was a discussion she didn’t want to have with Leonie, but she wasn’t sure why. Or, she hadn’t been sure so far. But during the training, a few hours in, their spears clashing until Leonie managed to jab right into her chest-

“Oomph!”

She realized that she’d fallen. Fallen onto the floor of the square that students used to train, air knocked out of her lungs, eyes full of stars that shone so bright in the sky. She realized that she’d finally fallen in love with someone. 

Leonie came over and leaned a little to block her sight for a bit, head tilted to the side. The stars that Bernadette saw didn’t disappear, though. It’d just gotten brighter and more luminous, face aflush as she stuttered something pathetic and nontangible, earning only a chuckle as Leonie first sat down next to her and laid down a little distance away from her, the two of them abandoning their spears to stargaze instead, the lack of a roof at the training area giving way to a moment she couldn’t ever forget, no matter what.

They talked more. The topics changed. Mostly about the stars, though. How pretty they were. How some of them formed shapes in the sky if you looked at them with the right angle. Bernie felt her hand shake and quake as it laid there against the cold stones, lifting and then on the occasion dropping. What did she really have to lose? Besides one of the few genuine connections she’d made with one of the most amazing people she’d met? 

… Maybe that was the wrong way to think of it. What did she really have to lose if she didn’t do it? Everything. She could lose everything if she didn’t take a hold of this moment, of the feelings she had. She’d grow a spine for this one time, hand reaching out… Until her fingers entangled with those of Leonie’s, who’d been casually staring up to the sky and chattering on about her training regimen.

The moment of silence was deafening, but soon the grip around her fingers grew a little tighter, and the smile she saw was so radiant she felt as if the whole night had suddenly been bathed in light more divine than that of the goddess. Under the stars, Bernadetta von Varley fell in love all over again, and under the stars she managed to whisper those words.

“I love you, Leonie.”


End file.
